David Hussey chose the biggest match of the Championship season so far to play an innings that he rated one of his best for Nottinghamshire, in the process subjecting Yorkshire to a chastening day in the field that raised worrying questions about their ability to sustain a title challenge.

The younger of the prolific brothers from Perth has hit an unbeaten 222 from 232 balls, the fourth double century of his career and a new record for a Notts batsman against Yorkshire, beating Tim Robinson's 220 at Trent Bridge 20 years ago.

Hussey has also fired the county he has served with such consistency in regular summer stints since 2004 to their highest total against Yorkshire, breaking a record set at Sheffield in 1949.

The current Australia Test team, including his elder brother Mike, may not have the happiest recent memories of Headingley, having been skittled for 88 by Pakistan last month. But Hussey junior happily confesses to a soft spot for Yorkshire.

He scored 189 at Scarborough last summer and this was his third century in five Championship innings in Leeds, taking his aggregate against Yorkshire to 803 runs at an average of 134. No wonder Yorkshire's young captain, Andrew Gale,, for whom this was an especially trying day, was left scratching his head about Hussey's inability to make the Australia team.

Yorkshire already need a daunting 319 to avoid an innings defeat, and can only hope that the forecast of more substantial rain than the drizzle that prevented any play before lunch yesterday is proved correct. After resuming on 35, Hussey dominated a fourth-wicket stand with Samit Patel to such an extent that he was already into the 90s before Patel, who had 37 overnight, had reached his half century.

David Wainwright, who has received an unexpected recall as Yorkshire's second spinner thanks to the latest trials and tribulations of Azeem Rafiq, may have been regretting his promotion when Hussey plundered 18 off his fourth over.

Patel followed that example by giving himself room to loft Adil Rashid over the covers, and although he was furious to give Jacques Rudolph the chance to make a sharp slip catch look easy when four runs short of a century, Chris Read and Paul Franks then joined Hussey to ensure there was no respite for Yorkshire.

Their fielding was occasionally as slapdash as the bowling was profligate, with Ajmal Shahzad dropping Patel badly in the deep and Hussey surviving a run out chance. They may yet escape from this match with a draw but they will do well to relaunch a credible challenge after this mauling.